For our next series of articles on Europe’s main five leagues, we take a look at the ten top players for Key Passes from each league. These are the players who, week after week, set up goal scoring chances aplenty for their team mates during the course of a match. Whether the opportunity leads to a goal and, resultantly, an assist for the passer, is another matter entirely. From centre midfield playmakers to wingers to target men, here’s the lowdown on the best ten players for Key Passes in last season’s Premier League:
It’s clear to see how much the absence of Thomas Hitzlsperger affected West Ham’s chances of survival last season. Plagued with a thigh injury for much of the season, the German didn’t make his league debut till late February, going on to play every minute of his 11 appearances in a Hammers shirt. Despite playing for the bottom-of-the-table side, Hitzlsperger made more Key Passes (3.09) per game than any other player in the Premier League.
For West Ham, no player made more Passes per game than Hitzlsperger, as he orchestrated matters from the middle of the pitch. His distribution was varied; 2 Crosses and 3 Long Balls per game as he looked to set up chances for his forwards. The German showed little need for Successful Dribbles, instead looking to shoot when he could; his 2 Shots per game were the same as Cesc Fabregas here, as he found the net on 2 occasions.
Florent Malouda was definitely let down by his team mates finishing last season. The winger made an incredible 117 Key Passes -easily the most in the Premier League- yet only finished with 4 Assists, the same as Hitzlsperger, despite the latter making just 34. This means that Chelsea scored 1 goal from every 29.25 Key Passes Malouda made. Luckily for Malouda, his own finishing was more impressive, as he found the net 13 times for Chelsea, ending the campaign as their top scorer, averaging 1.8 Shots per game.
Malouda was also top for Successful Dribbles for Chelsea, with his trickery out wide helping break down defences. His Crosses per game (2) is identical to Hitzlsperger and his Passes and Key Passes per game were very similar, as Malouda averaged 44 Passes and 3.08 Key Passes per game.
Cesc Fabregas made the most Passes per game of our top ten here, with an average of 64 highlighting just how much he sees of the play for Arsenal. Fabregas’1.5 Through Balls is indicative of his eye for a defence-splitting pass and 3.1 Long Balls per game shows how he turns defence to attack in an instant.
With 2.88 Key Passes per game, Fabregas made 72 Key Passes and resultantly grabbed 11 Assists; this means Arsenal scored 1 goal with every 6.54 Key Passes he made, highlighting just how unfortunate Malouda was. The Spaniard’s own shooting was not too impressive though; he had 50 Shots and scored just 3 Goals.
Joey Barton’s set-piece duties helped the Newcastle man average 2.53 Key Passes per game, with plenty opportunities laid on from free-kick and corners. Only Cheik Tiote (54) made more Passes for Newcastle than Barton (51) and Barton’s 5.7 Long Balls per game (the most of our players here) was a particularly successful tactic with Andy Carroll in the side, as Newcastle used his aerial prowess to great effect.
Barton’s 2.8 Crosses was the most of our top ten, too, another example of his set-piece dominance under both Chris Hughton and Alan Pardew. Barton bagged 9 Assists from 81 Key Passes over the season, meaning Newcastle scored 1 goal from every 9 of his Key Passes and Barton also helped himself to 4 goals, averaging 1.1 Shots per game over 32 appearances.
Chris Brunt was another player from the promoted sides to stand out due to his creative output. The left-footer featured in five different position for West Brom last term, with 23 of his 34 appearances coming as a right winger. Brunt, like Barton, benefited from set-piece duties, and matched the Newcastle man in many categories; his 2.53 Key Passes, 4 Goals and 9 Assists were identical.
Although he scored the same number of goals, Brunt did average almost twice the number of Shots as Barton (2 to 1.1), indicating his tendency to let fly given the chance. His 40 Passes per game was only bettered by Youssuf Mulumbu (47) for West Brom, another example of his importance to the side.
Like Cesc Fabregas, Steven Gerrard missed a fair part of last season, making just 21 appearances for Liverpool. Averaging 60 Passes per match, the play runs through him for Liverpool almost as much as Arsenal rely on Fabregas. Gerrard’s average of 2.52 Key Passes over those 21 matches meant a total of 53, from which he picked up 5 Assists. This works out at 1 Liverpool goal per 10.6 Gerrard Key Passes, way down on Fabregas’ average.
Gerrard’s 1.6 Crosses and 5.6 Long Balls per game highlights his ability to vary distribution and his 1.7 Shots was as impressive as Malouda, though he only found the net 4 times from a total of 36 shots.
For Tottenham, Rafael Van der Vaart’s 2.39 Key Passes was almost matched by Luka Modric’s 2.1 but Van der Vaart’s 2.9 Shots per game compared to Modric’s 1.2 illustrates just how much more of an overall attacking threat the Dutchman is. Whereas Modric averaged 63 Passes per game, Van der Vaart made 44 Passes but, playing in the hole, carried greater threat with his distribution.
Van der Vaart has the best Pass Accuracy of our top ten, with 84%, an impressive stats given his tendency to play plenty Long Balls (3.8) per game. With 8 Assists from a total of 67 Key Passes, this means Spurs scored 1 Goal per 8.37 Key Passes, one of the best ratios of our featured players. Van der Vaart’s 13 Goals saw him finish top scorer as well as top for Assists for his club, the only one of our top ten to do so.
Although Owen Coyle has been hailed for changing Bolton’s style of play since arriving in January 2010, the Trotters continue to use Kevin Davies’ aerial prowess to great effect. Davies won 58% of Aerial Duels on his way to averaging 2.39 Key Passes per game, the same as Van der Vaart. Davies also made the same number of Passes per game (44) and although his Pass Accuracy was a lowly 58%, it’s clear how efficiently Bolton use his strengths.
With only 5 Assists, this means Bolton converted 1 of every 18.2 of Davies’ Key Passes, an indication of their poor finishing, particularly in the second half of the season; strike-partner Johan Elmander was particularly culpable, with just 3 goals in his last 25 league games.
Ryan Giggs played in six different positions for Man United last season but his creativity stood out wherever he was fielded. In particular, Giggs shone on the European stage, with 5 assists in 8 games for the beaten Champions League finalists but his domestic form was just as impressive, with an average of 2.36 Key Passes over his 25 appearances. With 6 Assists, this means Man United scored 1 Goal per 9.83 Giggs Key Passes.
Giggs’ Successful Dribbles (1.4) was virtually on a par with Malouda here (1.5), though a low average of 0.8 Shots saw him grab just 2 Goals for the champions, despite firing in a total of 20 attempts.
Nani ended the season as top for Assists in the Premier League, with a total of 14, though he made less Key Passes (78) than Barton (81). Much was down to his side’s finishing, with United scoring 1 Goal for every 5.57 Nani Key Passes, the best ratio of all our featured ten. He fired in 2.3 Crosses from the wing, coming second only to Barton in our top ten.
Nani also leads the way for Successful Dribbles here, with 2.5 per game, and his 3.1 Shots were greater than any of our top ten. With 102 Shots, though, his 9 Goals represents a fairly low return for the season. Excelling across so many statistical areas saw Nani finish the season as the top-rated Premier League player by who scored.com, with an average match rating of 7.52.
